HousingPANIC Glimpse of Reality of the Day

"The demand for mortgage brokers in Las Vegas was so strong that "every stripper, waiter and bartender on the Strip had a broker's license"

- Boyd Nyborg, a former mortgage broker who now tends bar at the Tao Las Vegas.

(We just knew HP'ers. We just knew.)

And then the REIC-advertising-supported newspapers started laying off their staffs

What's gonna disappear first, having been disintermediated by the internet, discredited by their lies and distortion, and absolutely crushed by the housing crash...

Realtors or Newspapers?

Well, now we know why the MSM were such active cheerleaders of the housing bubble at the time - look no further than their REIC-driven and desperately needed ad revenues which have now gone kaput.

Now we just need to figure out why the f*cked up so bad on Iraq.

Paper scratches 40 jobs - Soft real estate market impacts ad revenue

A steep but cyclical decline in real estate advertising has forced The Bakersfield Californian to eliminate 40 positions, 10 of them through layoffs, company President and CEO Richard Beene announced Tuesday.

Between 2004 and 2006, The Californian enjoyed strong profits largely because of an "exploding real estate market," Beene said. But recently, real estate agents, home builders and others in the industry have scaled back their advertising, he said.

The real estate market is not expected to rebound until 2009 at the earliest, he said.

22 year old stripper with $2.4 million in debt and 10 foreclosed houses. An REIC spinning out of control. And an epic, devastating housing crash.

Folks, if you haven't gotten the message yet, you really should right about now.

You have witnessed the end of a giant fraud-enabled housing bubble now ending in an historic housing crash that will shake the world.

Ask yourself why places like Phoenix, where housing price increases barely kept up with inflation for decades, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, shot up 55% in one year.

It was fraud folks. Pure unmitigated, unchecked fraud. With a dash of greed of course.

A wave of fraudsters, flippers, investors, and locals caught up in a grand Ponzi Scheme. One giant STD of call center jockeys, strippers, bartenders, realtors, infomercial salesmen, used car dealers and the rest gaming the system, committing mortgage fraud on a massive scale, falsely and temporarily inflating home prices, sucking cash back out of the deals in a massive bank robbery, all under the corrupt and ignorant eyes of regulators, Congress and the media.

And then it ended. Suddenly.

The funny thing is that the 22 year old stripper didn't end up holding the bag. Sure, her credit is wiped out, and she'll be back on the pole. But it's the pension funds, the hedge funds and China who ended up getting burned in the deal. Plus any unsuspecting and underwater homedebtor who listened to a realtor on commission and bought in 2003 - 2006, and neighborhoods blighted by her foreclosures.

22 years old. $2.4 million in debt. Admitted mortgage fraud. 10 foreclosed houses. I think this stripper could be Casey's alter ego!

How many more are out there folks? Jail time anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

'Straw buyer' deals fuel tidal wave of foreclosures

She was 22 and tired of exotic dancing for a living. So Irene Thomas bet her future on real estate, hoping that becoming a landlord would be her first step toward exiting the stage.

With the help of Universal Mortgage Inc., a brokerage company in Brooklyn Park, Thomas signed the papers to buy a house early last year. And she kept signing. And signing.

In 90 days, with none of her money down, Thomas had $2.4 million in debt and 10 houses in her name, most in north Minneapolis. Nine belonged to officials of Universal, the same company that handled the transactions for her.

Less than 18 months later, Thomas was losing every property to foreclosure after the monthly payments weren't made. Her credit ruined, she now says she was duped by a group of real estate insiders who sold houses at inflated prices.

The practice is so commonplace that real estate experts say it is helping fuel the nation's foreclosure epidemic, which is destabilizing neighborhoods as home after home is lost to banks and other lenders.

Today must have been "let's destroy the realtor profession" day at the mainstream media. Like it needed any help being destroyed.

First the New York Times on how homedebtors are better off selling FSBO than using a six percenter

Then there's this story in the Baltimore Sun about realtors who never took an econ 101 class (price elasticity anyone), who are raising their rates as business slows down. Yes, the geniuses think that'll help generate more income. Oh, man, can realtors be this dumb?

And of course, the big story of the day was the expose in the USAToday about how realtors are getting clobbered during this housing crash. Almost made you feel sorry for the little guys. Almost.

HP's message for the real estate clerks of America: Hate to break it to you, but you are buggy whip salesmen. It's over. Find a new job. Really. Find a new job. And hopefully one where you don't have to lie, steal, cheat, spin, fib, distort, con and bamboozle.

Housing slowdown smacks Realtors hard

STAFFORD, Va. — Chris Beach often works through lunch and seldom leaves the office before 9 p.m. So far this year, he's taken 2½ days off from work. And he hesitates now to take vacations, because he fears losing business: potential home buyers or sellers.

"My wife went out and bought two dogs because I'm never home," says Beach, whose hands-free cellular earpiece seems permanently attached to his head.

This is the life of a real estate agent in a market in which in the past year home sales have tumbled 30%, prices have fallen 13% and there's a one-year supply of homes for sale.

For many of today's agents, this is the first housing downturn they've ever seen, and it's become a belt-tightening test of their staying power. Nearly 25% of Realtors nationwide received their real estate license in the past two years, just as the market had peaked and was turning south.

Plenty of them were like Trish Hiles, who didn't "like sales per se," but, tempted by the image of agents earning easy money, got her license in the summer of 2005. The market was so sizzling-hot, she recalls, that a developer told her she would "be turning people away."

Not exactly. Realtors with two years' experience or less earned a median income of just $15,300 last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. After taxes, association fees and marketing costs, they pocketed a mere $9,400.

Can someone explain to me why 1.2 million fools pay the NAR membership dues?

I don't think this incompetent and corrupt organization could do more damage to real estate clerks if they tried.

If I were a real estate clerk (ho ho, ho ho he he, ho ho ho ho ho he he he he he ho ho)

OK, seriously, if I were a real estate clerk (he he he hehe ho ho, heh he ho ho ho ho ho)

OK, one last try. If I were a real esta...

I can't get it out. But you know what I mean.

Anyway, instead of sending the NAR membership dues every quarter, I'd be gathering up my fellow real estate clerks and marching on NAR HQ in Chicago, turning the place over, and demanding the resignation of everyone in the building.

Real estate clerks of America - what are you doing? How much more of the NAR incompetence and blather will you stomach? Are you really THIS stupid? Don't you realize you're run by monkeys? Yes, you'll be losing your job soon. But at least go down with a fight! REALTOR REVOLUTION!

NAR Responds to 60 Minutes' May 13, 2007 Segment
CBS News Magazine Show Misses the Mark

In the world of political campaigns, it's a standard ploy to set the stage with an empty chair when one candidate refuses to debate his opponents. The CBS show 60 Minutes gave the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® the empty chair treatment in a May 13 segment that examined the impact of online brokerages on the real estate industry.

The show featured interviews with a representative from the now-defunct eRealty and the president and CEO of Redfin, but no one from NAR, even though NAR twice offered and prepared Association spokespersons for interviews with Leslie Stahl. It was CBS that made the decision it would rather interview our opponents and let them make unanswered -- and inaccurate and unfair -- accusations about REALTORS® and NAR policies.

60 Minutes report on the NAR's MLS monopoly and the dinosaur "six percenter" realtors (real estate clerks)

Here's the 60 Minutes video link.

Goodbye 6%. Anyone think realtors deserve $30,000 on a $500,000 house? Try $5,000. Or $500. And hello Redfin.

The only value real estate clerks added was getting the house on the MLS. If a discounter can do that, or if the MLS can get disintermediated itself (google?), then there is NO reason to pay a realtor a percentage. Maybe an hourly wage for showing houses, but that's about it.

Victory will be ours. 1.2 million realtors around the US, sorry to say, but you're dinosaurs, and the game is over.

Go find new work.

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Why is everyone blaming the subprime blowup for the housing crash?

Are they really that dumb? Or do they really think we're that dumb?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Toni - The Mortgage Broker Hottie ;-)"

Hat-tip to housing-boom blog and an eagle-eyed HP'er for bringing us this gift.. And to Toni - The Mortgage Broker Hottie ;-) herself, for being such a nice representation of this unregulated, untrained and unnecessary business.

At what point did "mortgage broker" even become something society needed? Remember when we had banks? Remember when you knew your banker and he knew you? And wouldn't the internet do a better job than an untrained and unregulated bartender?

Is there any question now why the cocaine-fueled poser cities of Phoenix, Vegas, Miami and San Diego became epicenters of rampant mortgage fraud and historic housing bubbles?

Well, at least Toni - The Mortgage Broker Hottie ;-) has a fallback position.

Be gentle HP'ers... she's just a girl trying to make a buck...

Toni - The Mortgage Broker Hottie ;-)

About me:

Hi guys, A little about me: Well Im a Mortgage Broker able to close both residencial and commercial loans in 42 states.

I love my job because I get to help people get buy homes or refinance them. In the process I also get to make some money.

On the side I also plan events and parties in best place of all... Miami Beach. Im a night club promoter so if you need to get on my guest list, just let me know. On Thursdays Im at Cielo, Fridays at Dek 23 and Saturdays at Glass.

Who I'd like to meet:

Im always happy to meet new people. Anyone whos in the mortgage or realestate business, anyone whos into the nightclub industry. Basically everyone. So send me a friend request and I might just accept it...lol

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

What are the five worst housing-bubble-based cities in the US?